One mistake that advocates of healthcare reform made was not to discuss the corruption of HMOs and health insurers and the deadly consequences. We need to educate people on why these corporations need to go.

I don't like your editing or banning criteria: "Heterosexist, racist, misogynistic or otherwise bigoted comments are subject to deletion as are comments advocating in favor of terrorism.

Any comment advocating the physical, emotional, or sexual abuse of children will get the poster banned."

What's the point of having a blog if you're only going to discuss issues with people who already agree with you. I guess validation is nice, but I get that from my closest friends without expecting it from my entire reading audiences. For example, a lot of people disagree with what they read (or the purpose of my publishing) what can be found at the Truth About Kos blog. Nonetheless, I've never edited their comments out because they're irrelevant, factless, and determined to deny the importance of documented facts.

I prefer to let the obfuscatory defenses of Markos C. Alberto Moulitsas Zúñiga stand for themselves.

The Pew poll you cite shows how much senseless bigotry there is against atheists in this society. Those of us who are atheists already knew about this bigotry because we see it in our daily lives. Prejudice against atheists is just as irrational and shameful as prejudice based on race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or HIV status.

If you follow this blog for long, you will see that there is plenty of room for disagreement and debate without the bigotry and abuse advocacy mentioned in the comments policy. If people want to have comments published that violate it, they can simply go somewhere else.